We looked last week at the technology and background of searching the Internet, with a warning that the search results you get from Google, Bing and Yahoo could actually get you in trouble. This week, we’ll look at some of the things you need to know in order to search the Internet safely.
Internet crooks have long studied the habits of Internet users, looking for ways to trick them into clicking the wrong things and hopefully scamming them out of a credit card number. They have learned that many people place an inordinate amount of trust in search results, not realizing that search results are not subject to rigid background checks or protections. In order to not be victimized by search spam, it is important to learn the difference between a browser address bar and a search box.
A “browser” is a program that lets you look at websites on the Internet; that’s all it is. The most widely-used browsers are Internet Explorer (a Microsoft product), Firefox (a Mozilla product), Chrome (a Google product) and Safari (an Apple product). A browser is not “the Internet,” nor does it “take you to” the Internet; all it does is let you look at websites. The icons you click to use browsers are the blue “e” (Internet Explorer), the orange and blue ball (Firefox), the circle with the blue dot in the middle, surrounded by red, yellow and green (Chrome), and the slightly-tilted compass (Safari).
Competition among browsers is fierce, with their manufacturers constantly fighting to be Number One on the browser battlefield. What makes a browser Number One is subject to interpretation, with each browser claiming to be faster, easier to use and with more features. The one thing all browsers share in common is the “address bar.” The address bar is located at the top of the screen, typically shaped like a long, skinny rectangle. In it, you will see the address of whatever website you are visiting at the time. Complete website addresses read something like “http://www.normantranscript.com.” Some browsers are set to leave off the http and www, leaving the address to read simply, “normantranscript.com.”
Address bars are used when you know the address of the website you wish to visit. You simply click inside the bar, type the address of the website, press the “Enter” key on your keyboard, and voila, you will be taken to that website. You can usually leave off the http://www at the beginning of the address when using the address bar. For example, if you type “davemoorecomputers.com” in the address bar, without the http and www, and press the Enter key, you will be taken to my website.
Search boxes, or search “bars,” are completely different tools and should not be confused with address bars. Search bars/boxes are commercial products made by search companies (Google, Yahoo and Bing being the “big three”) that can be integrated into your browser, and which utilize that particular company’s search “engine” technology, as described in last weeks column. For example, the Google search bar can be installed in any browser from any manufacturer, giving you a miniature version of the Google search website tucked away in a small rectangle-shaped box at the top of your browser.
Search boxes are to be used when you do not know the address of the website you are looking for. If, for example, you want to find the website for the New York Times, but don’t know the address, you would type “New York Times” in the search box. The search “engine” will give you back the results it discovered, revealing to you that the address you are looking for is not “newyorktimes.com,” but is, in fact, “nytimes.com.” The results will also give you a handy link that, when clicked, will take you to desired website.
Next week, we will look at how to avoid search spam, and the many dangers bogus search results can bring.